The monster’s paws nded softly on the floor. Her ears caught the hiss of the liquid trying to dissolve her legs, but aside from the unpleasaion, there was no danger. Slits opened on the floor, sug up the deadly substand the watery remains of the deceased. Part of the acidic waters flowed into the open corridors, and the heat tur into pale vapors rising to the ceiling.

  There were still survivors. A flick of her arm sent a whitecoat spttering like a fly against a wall. A desperate womao her knees, beseeg the moo stay her wrath. Number One obliged, stomping the life out of her faster than a brain could register the pain. The e fiends tried to retreat into the corridor she had used to ehe room. She threw a brokeal spike at them, impaling all four. No mero more torture. Pure rage and quick kill. Closure to this part of her life.

  She came over to the energy shield surrounding Academi. The man wasn’t a normal human; she could tell this much by the fact that he alone was without a gas mask, inhaling the deadly fumes with no more effort than she did. He reeked of pure rage, fag her eyes unafraid. The monster raised her paws, first testing the shield carefully, then plunging her cws into it with full force, straining the devi the man’s e to its utmost limit. Number One wasn’t nearing her upper limit, carefully servirength, worried about any potential tricks her prey might have in store.

  The shield worked simply enough. It created a protective sphere around its user, blog the ining attacks. Things that cked suffit weight, like acid from the vat or things without enough pung potential, like bullets and debris, would bound fall off the round surface of the projected energy. But by striking several points at the shield’s surface, it ossible to short-circuit the projeg device as it struggled to pensate for the viotion of the field’s iy.

  “Who do you think you are ravaging through my boratory?” Academi inquired. He scowled at the chuckle, and a brighter fsh of his crimson irises betrayed them to be artificial impnts. “What are you ughing at, thing? You believe you have achieved anything?”

  “Ravager. It has a nice ring to it.” The word ented her. She had a name, one she had chosen for herself. Number One, vat born; these were the monikers of her past. A human should have a name, and a monster should have a title to match. Ravage and sughter everything evil until only humans remained. “I am not sure if I won, but you? You lost, father,” she told him, straining the muscles in her legs to increase the pressure.

  So many were dead, and her work wasn’t even done. What good did it do her? Her kin remained dead, the suffering of the past days refused to disappear, and she no longer felt fortable standing on two feet. The frightened girl from before disappeared into the darkhat rose in her pce. Ravager didn’t gain friends; she never ged anyone for the better, never forted a soul, she did the hideous job her owners had created her to do, murdering and rending, although Ravager doubted the fools were happy about that now.

  But there was ohing that brought her fort. Academi was fioday, his dreams will fade away, o be fulfilled. That was something, wasn’t it? She didn’t let etion rule her. This man’s eyes were still calm and calg. A prey was most dangerous when it was ered and had nothio lose. He still had cards to py.

  “Father? Do you sider yourself my daughter?” Academi’s knuckles paled from the sheer rage. “I am your creator, you delusional, disobedient, worthless whelp. You are my tool, a subject upon which I hone my craft, and nothing more. That is all you’ll ever be! My mind brought you into this world. By my will you live; by my design you toil. And if you are incapable of fulfilling your fun, then I will break and remake you as many times as it takes to create a suitable bat unit. I am Academi, and your existence belongs to me!”

  “Mind toning down your lunatic ramblings, snack?” Ravager asked, pushing the field. A series of loud cracks ripped through the sphere, followed by sparks flying from the spaces around the cws, bringing a smile to her lips. “Such btant shit irks my ears.”

  Death. Left. The voi her head said. Ravager reacted without hesitation, diving to the right. Academi swung his e, pointing its end at her. The shield vanished, log a smaller one around the man, and the e fired a beam of darkness. Pure whiteness surrouhe edges of the released ray a of sutensity that the e fiends near Academi turned into bck shapes against the white, disappearing food.

  A tongue of pain licked at her left arm. Ravager’s eyes wide the missing biceps and exposed remnants of her muscles, as well as the sight of bed bohere was something else ihe wound; she had some sort of subdermal armor, but none of it ged the fact that her arm had lost a siderable amount of flesh from shoulder to elbow. The on barely grazed her and she nearly died.

  The doom rolled on, vaporizing both people and everything in its path. The ruined barricade disied into bck specks, a parody of a mine shaft appeared in the mech’s remains, the wall colpsed, p debris into the hall. Steel, shattered armss, and isters rained down on the hall, fttening the survivors. Ravager’s eyes met Academi’s.

  Unwilling to risk another hit from the antimatter, she lu him. The puter above mumbled something about the emergency sealing procedures, and her foe tried to swing his e to hit her, but the red haze obscured her vision. The cws broke through the weakened shield, pierg the man’s shoulders, and she dragged her paws down, splintering his cvicles and humerus, ruining his elbows, and deg him food. Academi’s feet shuddered as the cws of her legs stepped on them, pinning the man to the pce. His eyes fshed, releasing highly trated ser beams that died in the void of her fur.

  Ravager bit him. Still holding him by the ruined arms, she ripped and swallowed, chewing on every part of his body to eliminate any hidden explosives or cealed ons before they had a ce to rob her of victory. Pieces of flesh rose in the air, floating in the poisoned air, and her paws shoved them all into her mouth. No trace of him will remain in this world. The yellow light of her eyes turned red as his blood staihem, but Ravager didn’t care, dev her prey whole. In the end, he tasted the same as every other human. She arched her back, unleashing the howl to the ceiling, prog her victory to the world and any gods willing to listen.

  She remembered little of what happened . Ravager had spent several hours hunting dow surviving whitecoats and e fiends, ending their lives. She stopped only o the request of a pathetic group who begged her to wait until they had finished writiers to their families. Both sides khere would be no mercy. Ravager could not find the strength in her heart to spare them. But she gave them time. There was no animosity between her and their families.

  Ravager wasn’t able to find the way out of the boratory. In her rage, she smashed walls, finding solid walls of an unknown, impregnable alloy behind them. Door after door led her to the same picture: every airway a was sealed, and she couldn’t even leave a scrat the smooth surface. Rage turo fear. Ravager picked up Academi’s e and fired repeatedly into one such wall, refusing to believe her eyes as the walls of her tomb held.

  Trapped. It enraged her. She howled, throwing herself at the pristine wall, kig until her paws bled, headbutting, and through it all, the puter system running the plex kept trying to kill her, synthesizing more potent toxins and viruses that made her head hurt. In her fury, Ravager wao destroy everything, but she held back her wrath, leaving the messages her tormentors had created intact.

  Eugenia. The name pulsed in her brairifying her as the moalked the halls, feeding on the dead. Her wounds on the arm healed, but it brought no relief. Eugenia. Eugenia. The nasty, wicked, cursed blonde! If only she had never met her, if only Eugenia had ood in Ravager’s way, then she wouldn’t be trapped here with no way out, alone and in silence. She began ting seds, making a single ssh every 86,400 seds. At 431,637 seds, she found a room deep in the facility, ohat had no doors leading in, but a heartbeat alerted her. Thinking it was a surviving whitecoat, Ravager stormed in, breaking through a wall.

  It wasn’t a whitecoat. It was a human. A copy er floated, suspended in a stasis field that slowed down every life fun to an impossibly high degree. If Ravager had to hazard a guess, for every day that passed, barely a sed passed for her... sister? There was no denying their kinship. The girl had a smaller stature; she had somehow stopped transf halfway through before turning into what Ravager had bee. Her ears were long, the snout protruded enough to fit a hand ihe jaws. Elegant, furry fingers of the girl’s hands rested on her chest, and through half-opened lips, Ravager saw a white glint of fangs. The girl’s capsule bore a painted round circle, while another capsule, embzoned with the number 1, stood beside it. She, too, had been here once, before beiracted and pced in the growing vat. Ravager was sure of it.

  How she wao break her sister free! It would be a trivial task to cut off the cords, depower the capsule, and catch the falling body, whispering words of reassurance. But she didn’t dare. Not with the poison in the corridor. Not until the walls refused to let them go. To what world would Ravager liberate this girl? A world of prison, darkness, ah. Her paws trembling, Ravager retreated into the darkness, cursing Eugenia’s was her fault! She was in police custody; why couldn’t that bsted girl tell when Ravager was? Eugenia, that bitch, wanted fer and her sister to suffer.

  31,449,738 seds ter, Ravager found herself on the knees, howling to the ung gods. Months of solitary fi and poison clouds had takeoll. Ravager caught herself fetting words. The crity of her thinking had suffered. She lu shadows, fantasizing of seeing Eugenia or her gang in there, ughing at her, mog the relentless migraihrobbing in her brain. It was so intehat Ravager had passed out several times, waking up spasming, drumming the number of seds oeel floor. The boratory turned into her personal hell, and Ravager begged the Spirits to deliver Eugenia to her.

  At the 34,560,000 mark, she slumped to her knees. Ay of loneliness—over a year of being alohere was no more food to be found here; she devoured corpses despite the rot. The st virus released by the puter had created a kind of fungus in several rooms, and she satiated her hunger by eating it. Her mi returning to the girl iasis field, watering at a forbidden thought. Just a mouthful. It won’t be that dangerous. In these moments, Ravager bit her own arm, vowing she would rather die than hurt the girl. She didn’t know her, not even her name. Ravager decided to do whatever she could to give her a ce at life. A ce she sorely cked.

  Finally, after 62,899,200 seds, a ge occurred. She didn’t believe it at first, taking the tremors for another halluatioher by ce or by some miracle, the savior had found her. And the monster walked.

  ****

  Blessed Mother!

  A voice called out to her, urgio wake up. The moried to resist.

  Get up already, Big Sis! A ki her side followed the urging words.

  She awoke, apanied by reddish spots blog her vision and a headache threatening to tear her brain in two. Half-groaning, half-growling, she stretched her arms out to their full span, ehe popping in her shoulders, and looked up at the night firmament, seeing it clearly despite the toxic clouds above, ting stars to defeat the headache. It receded but refused to disappear, always lurking in the back of her mind, like an old friend who never passed an opportunity to rake its torturous instruments over her brain.

  A multitude of smells assaulted her nostrils, and sounds came to her. Boastful words of her rough kin, the sound of grinding gears, the hushed whispers of people. She heard a soldier announce his wife’s pregnancy to his rades, and they cheered, raising fsks in celebratier made a o preserve the male’s life. The Wolfkins were at it again, provoking their white-furred cousins into sparrings.

  With the Twins no longer around, she had to keep them safe, always keeping the Whites at arm’s length to prevent her madness from seeping into them. Unlike her own kin, they were unspoiled, pure, and had a grand future. She shook off her sadness and trated further. Meics joked grimly, finishing adjusting power armor. So many wonders in this world!

  And none of them was meant for her. She looked at her paw, surprised at this sudden thought, and remembered her true purpose in the world. Why not for her?

  Her paw, with fihe size of a human torso and cws that could rend everything in their path. They gleamed white despite the dried blood marring their surface. Thick bck fur covered her body, darker than any night, while the light from her eyes illuminated her ons of murder. Smiling with a long snout, she let out a ugh.

  ht. I am a monster. Ravager pted and surveyed her army. She stood atop the mound made of the ptes of the enemy soldiers. Onyxia… or was it Ashbringer? Janine perhaps? One of her rowdy girls had caught a group of people during a hasty resrab to deny them to the invaders. The fools sought to starve out the invaders. Upon hearing the news, Ravager took to the field, hunting down any such party. Some were soldiers of the local kingdom; others were typical raiders. She took the equipment of both groups as trophies and murdered those who resisted. In doing so, she spared the vilges the fate of being robbed blind and bei devoid of supplies to survive.

  The weak still scattered, afraid of her, even after she dropped their supplies at the homes of their elders.

  I deserve this. Murderer. Kin-syer. A monster. Suffering is the least of what I deserve.

  Ravager saved herself. Meanwhile, the world died, undergoing a brutal rebirth through the fiery fmes. Flying vehicles fell, and soon skyscrapers followed, littering the lifeless ground. Creatures broke free from the boratories. But the people remained. Mad, strong, weak, good—all sorts of people. And now it fell to her to save those too weak to save themselves in the only way a monster could. She let the army soldiers educate the vilgers that times of their oppression had passed and shoved the captives into her crawler.

  It loomed over her, her gigantic moving den grao her by the Dynast, the man who let her leave the boratory and raised her to be a ander. She the Iable. Factories in its bowels supplied her army; rows of batteries aided her family more than once, clearing a path in the heated battle. It was also a ve prison, a pce to hide when the urge to kill was to. Tonight, they won’t be of much use. A city unto itself. It had vast halls to produce food, arsenals to store onry, and… medical facilities. She steered clear of them, despising the whitecoats. They may speak the honeyed words, urging Ravager to present herself for treatment, but she refused to lose her freedom ever again.

  A pond of her lesser copies set up a camp around the mound. Bck-furred Wolfkins; a blood of her blood, grown from the scraps of her skin. Their camp was one of the dusty tents, surrounded by rows of proximity mines and protected by watchful scouts. It was a camp of people ready to pack up and leave at any sed, striking, retreating, and biting the oppositiohere was no clear order in the positioning of the tents; a warlord or a wolf hag might pce her and at the edge of her pack. The camp’s inhabitants oriehemselves by st or, when that was impossible, by instinct. Shamans held ceremonies, promising the Spirits to deliver vengeance.

  Something happened while she slumbered.

  They shared her brutish visage, iing the cruelty of her madness. Time and time again, she tried to set them up to be better thao turn them into something she desperately wanted herself to be before the isotion broke her. Ravager failed, often shing out and creating crueler traditions in the process. Eventually, she stopped, leading her kin itle aing them grow up on their own. As the number of her children grew, so too did the number of ges. Some acquired rust-colored fur; others were spotted. It mattered little; Ravager weled them all. They were her family. A family she poisoned and a family she would die to protect.

  o them was another camp, hidden behind a structed wall. Its tents spoke of the splendor of its inhabitants; the soldiers reading for battle looked almost indistinguishable from the Wolfkins. Their limbs were thiheir eyes were crimson orbs instead of amber moons. Brittler in bones and fangs, they possessed an elegand agility unnatural to their blood cousins. These were the Ice Fangs; their fur was white, occasionally blue, aremely rare, with yellow flecks. Ravager had ied these cubs from those she had named brother and sister. Unlike her own cubs, they lived for both eace, yet they too fell prey to superstitions, veing Ravager as their Blessed Mother.

  She hated every sed of this charade, but no longer dared to put ao it. The st time resulted in casualties.

  Their camp, led uhe prote of the Iable’s main ons and turrets, well-pced pillboxes, and patrols, eotal security from an ued attack. Knights ioiled, drilling the lesser ranks as their captains passed by, perf the st iions, scrutinizing their soldiers for any imperfes in their armors. Squires hoisted the banners, clearly marking the pce of stay of every Sword Saint, and sages watched for potential spies and questioned local aides about nearby ruins.

  The greatest er’s soldiers, Warlords Dragena and Alpha, Sword Saints First and Camelia k around her, awaiting the instrus. Behind them, in the distance, was the looming city of the local warlord. More of a fortress, really, with high walls surrounding it. Hundreds of projectors brightly lit the sky above and the nd surrounding the city. Warning horns souheir melody, activating defenses and turrets to repel any intruders.

  And close to her stood a shadow—a smaller, identical copy er, but so different in mind and habits. She wore a thick bck cloak that could ge color to mimic her surroundings. Underh, her body was encased in a sleek suit of armor, one of the most advanced pieces of teology avaible to their young state. She slung a rifle over her shoulder, but the true danger y in her tless tools of trade hiddeh the cloak and within the armor. Zero. Her little sister bared her neck, removing the get and rubberized neck guard. Ravager grinned and patted the cheeky girl on her featureless helmet, showing that she wasn’t angry.

  How could she be? Zero had a troubled past, burdened by jealousy, but she rose above it, being everything Ravager wanted her other cubs to be.

  “Blessed Mother.” Alpha raised her head, staring at Ravager. “The offer of reunification was denied. Our emissary has been killed. This battlefield has a target worthy of the Butcher-Maiden.”

  A snarl left Ravager’s lips, and she felt her muscles t and twisting, fighting back against the bloody urge that demanded her immediate advano. Going in alone was not effit; it would bring only more death aru.

  She warhe noble fool that this would happen. But no, he cimed his duty before the state a his guards behind, walking aloo his destiny. Another life she had failed to save.

  Her low growl and anger reached both camps, agitating the Wolfkins and Ice Fangs. Even the Normies and mutants, the regurs of the Third Army, stopped their activities. Their officers did not eveo issue an order; squad by squad, division by division, these brave souls pleted their own preparations for battle, reported their readio Captain Cristobo Bulwashnikov, a requests to apany her into the battle. Her pack, horde, and family.

  Naturally, they will all be refused. The New Breeds will quer this patch of nd far more effitly than a Normie or a mutant army could. Had the quest beeo her dear friend, he would bombard the foe into the stone age before marg in his ns uhe prote of the crawler’s shield, digging trenches in case of a sudden need for temporary retreat, never exposing his soldiers to danger except by ce. Saboteurs would pnt viruses in the fortress’s systems, and seams would reap the toll of officers from the opposite side.

  Ae pn. But she sehe beatis ihe capital. Too many civilians. And something else—the way the enemy positioheir forces—brought a hint of suspi into her tormented mind. Ign the headache, Ravager forced her brain to work. No wallowing in self-pity. A sort of death awaited them unless she could uand the ambush. She needed trol. Crity. Ravager sed her subordinates, noting the shared on the faces of Alpha and First. They, too, had sensed something was amiss but couldn’t put their finger on it.

  Still, the unity the Normies had shown in their anger over the envoy’s death was inspiring. The man may have been a piss-stained pacifist who wouldn’t st a day outside of the Core Lands, but he had the guts to stick to his dedicatioing her for every life taken. Men and women who had spent their lives fighting wars burned with the desire to avenge such a different member of the pack.

  Ravager sensed her foe. A single heartbeat somewhere in one of the tall towers rising to the sky, alone calm iire city, assured of victory, protected by a multi-yered defense of energy barriers. The sound didn’t e to her through some overlooked weakness in the enemy’s defenses; no, the prey, imagining herself a hunter, let it pass, inviting Ravager to bite. In doing so, she helped Ravager uand.

  Her foe otential S-ew Breed, a person equal to her not in physical might, but superior in mind. That genius spawned tless iions that allowed the oppressor to rise above everyone else. Why, then, was this pce so desote? The capital forced the vilges to grow meager food, took everything, and poisohe nd for tens of kilometers in every dire, slowly turning this try into an unlivable, irradiated toxic waste for ahe damage was so extehat even terraf would take decades to repair. Why not build a paradise if you pn to rule?

  Ah. I see now. A grave.

  “Rouse the packs, Alpha.” Ravager looked up, inhaling the air filled with toxic fumes ing from the city. Her amber eyes focused briefly on the distant white disk hidden behind the heavy clouds. “The city will be brought bato the fold before the first ray of sunlight. For the Dynast and the Recmation Army!”

  e, Teo-Queen. Show me the doom you have in store for me, you foolish, petunt girl. And when you do, I will drag you into the Abyss.